Melissa Barrera has been excluded from the ‘Scream’ franchise by Spyglass Media. The production house has removed the actress from the popular film series after her controversial comments regarding the Israel-Palestine situation. And now fans demand that they bring her back to the series, otherwise they would boycott ‘Scream 7’.
Barrera had previously said that she understands what it is to be from a colonized country. She sympathized with the Palestinians by strongly condemning Israel’s policies. She also said, “Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp. This is genocide and ethnic cleansing.” With some other artists of Hollywood she wrote ‘Artists4Ceasefire’ Petition.
After her being expelled from the franchise on the grounds of so-called anti-semitic comments, the production house also defended their action. A spokesperson for Spyglass Media has stated, “Spyglass’ stance is unequivocally clear: We have zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech.”
Christopher Landon, the director of the upcoming ‘Scream 7’ has said, “Everything sucks. Stop yelling. This was not my decision to make.” This one-sided political policy of Hollywood is being criticized by netizens hugely. They have pointed out that Noah Schnapp did not have to face such dire consequences when he said, “Zionism is sexy”.
This is utterly ridiculous that artists have to be puppets of production houses and distributors and they cannot have any political opinions of their own. This bias and intolerant attitude gets mistaken for political correctness and fair policy, but does more harm to the industry than anything. Fans have filed a petition to bring Melissa back to the series at any cost and have also threatened to boycott the upcoming movie if they do not do so.